Upgrade 27 / 02: After the first announcement, Qualcomm specifies on which brands its satellite communication technology will be implemented. Find all the details in the article.
The concept of satellite communication it's still poco widespread, not so much on the market as in the minds of users, but with Snapdragon Satellite we will see an important step forward. Apple cleared it to the public with the iPhone 14 series, followed by the Huawei Mate 50 series. For us Europeans but above all Italians, therefore, it is a feature that is still absent: Apple has not yet enabled it in our country and Huawei devices are not widespread (to put it mildly). It was only a matter of time before that Qualcomm announces the adoption of this technology, so let's see what we will see change in the coming months.
Qualcomm presents Snapdragon Satellite - this is how its satellite communication works
After the announcement of CES 2023, new details arrive at the MWC 2023: the Snapdragon Satellite standard was born from the agreement with the American company iridium, thus being able to exploit its constellation of 66 low Earth orbit satellites; this is not the same company that Apple relies on, i.e. the competitor Globalstar. The partnership will allow Qualcomm to offer support to two-way communication via NTN 5G networks, useful for both SMS, messaging app that in situations of emergency in remote areas where there is no antenna connectivity.
Not only smartphones, then, but also tablets, notebooks, IoT products and cars. Collaboration with Garmin was also confirmed, also at work to expand the use of satellite communication to as many people as possible; meanwhile, let's not forget that also Elon Musk is moving in this direction with its Starlink, as well as rival MediaTek.
When will it be available and on which brands
After focusing on its implementation in the premium segment with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Qualcomm announces that Snapdragon Satellite will be introduced on 5G smartphones within all market segments, from entry-level to top-of-the-range. The chipmaker claims that the roll-out will start from second half of the 2023, with updates expected to arrive on models initially Xiaomi (series 13), Honor (Magic 5 series), OPPO (Find X5 Pro) e vivo (X Note), and then extended to brands such as Motorola (starting with Defy 2) is Nothing (probably from Telephone (2)); however, the actual availability remains to be understood, given that initially only a few spoke selected regions.
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